Halftime dancers carry sign protesting shooting by S.F. police

Santa Clara
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Social media lit up Sunday and Monday with photos and comments about a group of backup dancers at the Super Bowl who held up a protest sign about the recent shooting of a young black man in San Francisco.

The sign, which was held by four sexily dressed dancers and read "Justice 4 Mario Woods," quickly became a trending topic on Twitter, the internationally known micro-blogging site that is based in San Francisco.

Video of the dancers holding the sign at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., site of the 50the annual NFL championship game between the Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos, was posted almost immediately on the Twitter page of the Black Lives Matter group and attracted thousands of comments.

Denver won the game, 24-10.

The dancers were dressed in black with black berets, evoking the militant Black Panthers, and held their fists high like the Black Power salute of the 1960s, according to the KCBS-San Francisco radio station.

Beyonce's Super Bowl appearance was coordinated with her release of a video of her latest single "Formation" which includes graffiti reading "stop shooting us," the newspaper said.

Woods was fatally shot by San Francisco police on Dec. 2 during a confrontation in the city's largely minority Bayview-Hunters Point district.

Outrage over the shooting of Woods, who appeared to be carrying a knife and refused orders to drop it, has caused the U.S. Justice Department to undertake a formal review of San Francisco Police Department practices.

Woods was shot more than 20 times as he walked on Keith Street.

Video of the shooting went viral on social media, leading to widespread calls for the resignation of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr, who has repeatedly defended police actions as justified.